1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to improvements in an occupant constraining belt, particularly, shoulder belt.
2. Description of the Prior Art
It is well-known to provide a shoulder belt to prevent damage from being imparted to a seat occupant during collision of vehicles or the like. It is also known to normally provide a slack in the shoulder belt because such a shoulder belt, if tightened, gives unpleasantness to the seat occupant (see, for example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,026,494). In such a case, however, the portion of the shoulder belt adjacent to the shoulder of the occupant bears against the neck or the face of the occupant and depending on the arrangement of the end portion of the belt near the shoulder, the edge of the belt bears against the neck at an angle approximate to 90.degree. with respect to the neck, thus causing an unpleasant phenomenon known as neck-cutting. Also, the belt bears against the face or the belt exists in proximity to the face and this has reduced the view field or the visual perception of the seat occupant. Such tendency is pronounced in the so-called passive type constraining belt for forcibly constraining the seat occupant. This is because, in the passive type belt, a construction for automatically constraining the seat occupant, when entering the vehicle, is adopted and this requires a more complicated mechanism to be provided in the end portion of the shoulder belt near the shoulder of the seat occupant than in the case of a non-passive type belt and such a mechanism causes the end portion of the belt adjacent to the shoulder to be projected toward the interior of the vehicle while the end portion of the belt adjacent to the waist of the occupant lies at a substantially predetermined position so that the shoulder belt tends to approximate the vertical.